Hiking parking rates may not be that easy, say MCDS
NEWDELHI: After the Environment Pollution Control (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) directed Delhi’s municipal agencies to hike vehicle parking rates four-fold in a bid to encourage people to use public transport, the civic bodies have said they would not be able to enforce the orders right away.
The three municipal corporations insisted that they would need the approval of deliberative wings before hiking the existing parking rates.
However, EPCA member Sunita Narain said that the orders are legally mandated. “The decisions have been conveyed to the chief secretaries of the states who will in turn ensure their implementation,” she said.
An increase in parking charges is a measure mandated in the Supreme Court-approved Graded Response Action Plan when the pollution levels hit ‘severe’ category. As the AQI crossed 400 on Tuesday, pushing the pollution levels from ‘very poor’ to ‘severe’, the EPCA announced a slew of measures, including increasing parking rates four times. This was done to discourage use of cars so vehicle emissions can be brought down.
“But as per the Delhi Municipal Act, we are bound to take the 2-wheeler Car
Commercial vehicles approval of civic body/deliberative wing before taking any decision on increasing parking rates,” said Ranbir Singh, commissioner East Delhi Municipal Corporation.
“Considering it is an important decision and no house meeting is scheduled to take place in the near future, we will request the mayor for giving anticipatory nod as soon as possible,” he said.
The commissioners of South DMC, Puneet Kumar Goel, and North DMC, Madhup Vyas, gave the same explanation. The New Delhi Municipal Council’s secretary Chanchal Yadav said she was not aware of the directive on hiking parking fees.
Officials at the three corporations, however, said that they are yet to receive the copy of formal order from the state government after that the implementation process will start. “The orders are likely to come through the Delhi Pollution Control Committee probably by Wednesday. After that we will start working on all the prominent points,” said a senior official of the North Corporation.
The three corporations have 252 parking lots. The agencies charge ₹20 per hour from cars and ₹10 per hour from two wheelers. However, if the orders are implemented, hourly charges will increase to ₹80 and ₹40, respectively. This would be in addition to the per hour increase in parking rates by ₹20 and ₹10 for four and two-wheelers.
“We have also been directed to work on controlling dust pollution and issuing challan of ₹50,000 to construction sites, per stretch and every day, until there is improvement in situation as per the National Green Tribunal’s guidelines,” said North Corporation official.
Existing fee Fee during severe pollution level (Parking charges per hour)